Mobility of Four Track Steering Vehicles on Snow Surface

A four-track steering vehicle(4TS) is a new concept of off-road vehicles the tires of which have been replaced with tracks to improve mobility on a soft terrain. In this paper, a theoretical model to predict the steerability and mobility of the vehicles has been developed and the validity of the theoretical model is verified by the scale model and real vehicle tests. From the results of numerical analysis and experiments, it is found that the required driving force and track slip sinkage for steering are small noticeably as compared with those existing tracked vehicles, and so the mobility of a four tracked steering vehicle will be improved on soft terrain, especially, on snow surface.